Yorkshire was at the centre of a major campaign this week aimed at helping global charity WaterAid to thank the region’s residents for their generous support and to raise awareness of the daily struggle made by children and women in poor communities across the world to access water.
Team GB Olympic diver, Rebecca Gallantree joined WaterAid’s Paul Dyett at a special event held at Roundhay Park, Leeds, where jerry cans featuring the amounts raised by the region’s key towns and cities were carried full of water. The aim was to paint a picture of the daily hardship faced by people in poor communities who use jerry cans, weighing 20kg when full, to collect and carry water for their villages.
Other supporters of the event included Yorkshire Water’s Caroline Beavers and the Yorkshire Martyrs.
Yorkshire has been chosen for the focus of the campaign because the region has raised £1.8 million in the last year, enough to help 119,000 people gain a lasting supply of clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene.
Right: Rebecca Gallantree, Team GB Olympic Diver
Rebecca Gallantree, Olympic diver, said:
WaterAid is an amazing charity and we want to thank all those kind people across Yorkshire who have already offered support by making a donation. We also want to highlight that there are thousands more people around the world who need help.
We’re enjoying a hot summer and it’s impossible to imagine life without clean water for drinking and washing. In poor countries water is the one thing that changes everything. WaterAid has helped 19.2 million people since 1981 but with the region’s help we’d like to do more.
Donations to WaterAid will help to bring clean water and sanitation to communities in countries like Ethiopia, Malawi, Pakistan and Nepal. Just £2 a month could give a child clean, safe drinking water for life.
For more information visit, www.wateraid.org
